Kurdish Premier attends university graduation ceremonies across the Region
During a visit to Duhok, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said that his government will be signing new oil contracts in the near future.
PM Barzani visited Duhok to attend the graduation ceremony of Duhok University on Monday July 2nd 2012.
The next day, Kurdish Prime Minister met with the governor of Duhok and the local authorities in the governorate, where he talked about the importance of the governorate and its geographical location and expressed his happiness about the continuous developments in the province.
PM Barzani listened to the problems, comments, demands and complaints of the attendants, majority of which were about the need for more government focus, improving services and further development.
Barzani discussed ways to improve the administration of the areas and delivering better services to the public in terms of health, education, water, fuel, roads and resolving issues with regards to agricultural lands ownership.
Barzani said during the meeting that he is planning to visit Duhok once again in two months to lay the cornerstone of Duhok airport.
The Prime Minister also touched base on the issue of reducing routine and bureaucracy and facilitating the smooth flow of government institutional work in the province.
He reiterated that the solution for this could be the decentralization of power from the top to the bottom, and he said that to implement this initiative a committee will be established from the representatives of the ministries and other relevant institutions to follow up the issue and design an accompanying action plan.
Barzani also raised the issue of the disputed areas and reiterated the government's commitment to provide services to those areas as much as possible. He announced that a number of schools will be built in Shingar, Zammar and the surrounding areas and that will provide them with the required educational needs.
Barzani told the attendants that the whole Region is facing a shortage of schools and said that they need a national campaign for building schools, for which the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will be mainly depending on the private sector.
In regard to the health sector, Barzani said that a committee will start conducting a need assessment for the whole province within one week and then a number of hospitals will be built inside the city of Duhok and other districts and sub districts of the province.
"We want to build a strong foundation for a prosperous future," Barzani said about his government's plans for the province.
Commenting on his government's oil policy, PM Barzani said "Our oil is the key to our country's development and it should become a national issue."
"Kurdistan Regional Government will continue its oil policy and in the near future we will sign a number of big oil contracts similar to the Exxon Mobil contract with other international oil giants," continued Barzani. "We will do that in line to the right we have been given by the Iraqi constitution."
During his visit to Duhok, Prime Minister also participated in the kick-off of a strategic water treatment plan that supplies drinking water to the city of Duhok and its surrounding areas and solves a significant part of the water issue in the area.
"Government's projects practically started from the years 2004 and 2005 and during this short period and with this limited budget, big steps have been taken and developments were very fast," said Barzani. "We will continue implementing these strategic projects in the future, and especially those sectors that are the top priorities of the seventh cabinet including water, electricity, health and education."
Earlier this month PM Barzani had attended the graduation ceremonies of the Salahaddin and Sulaimaniya universities.
During the ceremony in Sulaimaniya on Sunday, July 1, 2012, Barzani delivered a speech in which he said that no government can neglect Sulaimaniya.
"We will never neglect it and we have said that we will make Sulaimaniya the capital of culture and this issue is currently a project submitted to the parliament, for which the first reading has been done."
Barzani also added that one of the positive characteristics of Sulaimaniya, which he wishes to see in every city, is that its people love their city, something which is delightful.
"We are also with the idea of giving more power to the governorates, districts and sub districts," Barzani told the attendants. "We have tried to remove the negative impacts of the election results to prevent and harm towards the public."
During the Salahaddin University graduation ceremony, Barzani promised that his government will try its best to find employment opportunities for the graduates.
He also talked about the political tensions in Iraq and the issue of cutting Region's fuel share from the central government, and reiterated that if it was not thanks to the KRG's oil policy, life would have stopped without electricity in the heat of the summer.
Salahaddin University, the largest university in the region celebrated its 31st graduation round amid plans to kick-off the university's new campus that is to be built in the near future in Erbil.
Dr. Ahmed Dizayee, President of the Salahaddin University -- Erbil, announced that PM Barzani will put the cornerstone of the university's new campus in Erbil.
Dr. Dizayee also announced that the Arab universities conference will be held in Erbil this year.
"This year the Arab universities conference will be held in Erbil this year with the participation of 200 Arab universities" presidents."
Dr. Dizayee, said, in an address to the attendants of the 31st round graduation ceremony in Erbil, that the graduation of 3500 students from the Salahaddin University is in parallel with the promising efforts of the KRG's seventh cabinet to utilize the qualifications of those graduates in the basic reforms in the government.
"We have sent three groups of our students to study abroad through the Capacity Development Program," said Dizayee. "We also continue implementing our quality assurance program at the university aiming at educating and raising the academic level and qualifications of the professors."
Regarding the relations of the Salahaddin University with abroad, Dr. Dizayee said that they have signed 94 academic protocols with universities and educational institutions all over the world in 2011.
He also added that they are in direct contact with many renowned German, American, French, Dutch and Greek universities in the field of archeology.
Salahaddin University President also announced that in the near future, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani will set the cornerstone of the university's new campus, which is to be built in the south of Erbil.
Dr. Dizayee also stated that besides the 3500 graduates, the university currently has 453 master students and 72 PhD students.
"We also have 213 master students and 165 PhD students studying abroad," Dizayee explained. "We will admit 5000 new students for the new academic year."
© The Kurdish Globe 2012
